“Ashley, turn that shit down!”
“FINE!” I released a small sigh as I turned down the TV, Billie Joe’s voice turning to small whispers.
“Ash’s in trouble, Ash’s in trouble!”
“Good lord, shut up Tristan!” I grumbled slightly as I reclined on my bed, eye’s half opened watching Mike Dirnt jump around like a maniac on my TV. It was probably the millionth time I’ve watched Bullet In A Bible in the past two days, but I just got it and I can’t turn away. I’ve been begging for it for months ever since I saw it on OnDemand. I was pretty lucky that my birthday wasn’t that far away, but it was torture watching only one performance a month until October came. I am not obsessed, I just really, really, really like them in a very large manner.
“Geese Ash, obsessed much?”
“Me? Obsessed? No, that would be my evil twin, Ashton.”
“Your hilarious, comic genius, Ashley.”
“I’ve been working on it, thanks.”  Tristan always complains when I watch or talk about Green Day. I guess it’s not his fault for being annoyed, I talk about them twenty four seven.  I bet if he was a girl and liked Green Day half as much as I do, he wouldn’t complain. But, he was a guy and only liked a few songs, so you really couldn’t blame him.
“I bet you memorized everything on here. What’s the big deal with them, anyway?”  Tristan knows how to start me.
“Well, for starters their front man is the best songwriter ever. They’re an amazing band that puts their heart and soul into their work. They’re amazing live and always give 150% on stage. That’s just for starters.”
“Does the disturbing fact you find them hot have anything to do with it? Or is that just Mike?”
“Just Mike, but Billie and Tre are ok.”
“Ahh.”
“Shut up.” I turned off the TV and sat back down on my bed, hugging a pillow as I stared at the ceiling. I could hear Trist rummaging around in my drawers but I didn’t say anything. It’s not like I had anything good to steal and even if I did, he knew I would hunt him down and kill him. The only thing really I kept in there that I held dear was my Green Day albums and other stuff, and Tristan knew if he touched them he would be dead in two seconds flat. His sudden laugh made me jump.
“Ah, oh my god, that’s so cute! Look it! It even has a little drawing.” I never had run as fast as I did to see what he had found. Just like I had expected, it was my math notebook. I guess you really couldn’t call it a math notebook because their was hardly any math in there. Instead, scribbles of ‘Green Day’ in different fonts, especially ‘Mike Dirnt’ with some little drawings on the side I’d rather not mention. I’m sorry, but math gets so boring I can’t help my mind wandering. OK, maybe it has something to do with my short attention span but that’s not the point.
“Hey, give that!”
“Nah, I think I’ll hang it up somewhere.” I think letting Tristan in my stuff wasn’t the brightest of ideas.
“You take that, I’ll make sure you never have children.”
“Touchy. Here,” He handed back my notebook and I made a noise slightly related to a growl as I shoved it back into the drawer. I leaned against the bed as I watched Tristan walk out of the room to get ice cream.  
“Immature jerk” I muttered as I leaned down to tie my Converse. He came back in and handed me a push-pop before sitting on the bed. I quickly grabbed my Green Day sweatshirt and zipped it up, almost cutting myself with the zipper I was in such a hurry.
“Slow down, it’s not like they’re not gonna be there.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of!”
At the fairgrounds today, Green Day was making an appearance. I was excited, but partly shocked. I would have expected them to be in the studio recording, but it turns out Billie’s wife is from Minnesota, so they came up for a trip and invited the rest of the Green Day crew with them. I had to go there. Meeting Green Day was on my to-do-before-I-die-list, anyways.  
“So, who’s driving us?” Tristan asked as he sucked on what was remaining of the purple liquid
“My cousin Travis, he’s really cool, you’ll like him.”  
“What makes him so cool?”
I shrugged as I hurried out the door and up the stairs out of the basement with Tristan matching me stride for stride.
“I don’t know. He’s cool. That’s that. It’s been that way since…ever.”
“I really don’t understand how you don’t get held back.”
“Shut up.” I mumbled lightly as I went to say good-bye to my parents.
“That’s your favorite word today, isn’t it?” He gave me this little grin that I had to admit was pretty cute, but was annoying at the same time.  I looked around the kitchen for my dad but didn’t find him. I told Tristan to stay where he was and hurried down the hall to my folk’s room. Sure enough, there was mom watching her stupid soap’s. Somebody died , somebody was pregnant, and somebody was being sent to jail. Surprise, surprise. The really only bad thing about my mom’s soaps was that she liked to imitate the people on TV so I lived in drama central.  
“Umm, mom I’m gonna get going with Tristan to see Green  Day. So, bye. Where’s dad?”
She didn’t even look up from her TV. Though, I could see her breathing so I knew she was alive. Just like that, she sprang to life and attempted to wrap me in a bear hug. As she did this, our fat bulldog Zuese got squashed and was yapping like a maniac. My mom lifted him, which I thought was impossible because of him being so fat, and began to comfort him.
“Oh, no! Little baby, are you alright? Don’t worry, mama’s here.”
“Umm, mom? Where’s dad..?” I watched as she looked at me in surprise, as if I had just arrived.
“Oh, daddy’s in the garage, have fun sweetie.” I never understood her. It looked like she never saw me when I walked in but there she goes, knowing every word I said to her. I mumbled another good-bye before running out and dragging Tristan along. Dad was there, fixing up the beat up Camaro, as always. I tapped him on the shoulder and he raised his head only to hit it on the roof. He let out a yelp and I cringed lightly, and then a frown appeared as Tristan laughed. I punched him in the gut. I think he should get in the record books for stopping his laugh so fast. My dad turned around and I noticed how beat up he was. Grease was smeared on his face and his hands were cut up. He smiled and hugged me, he already knew where I was going. My parents didn’t like Green Day all to much, but they knew it meant the world to me. “See ya, Ash.”
I gave a simple nod and me and Tristan jogged down to the end of the long driveway to wait for Travis.
“Promise me you won’t faint when you see Mike.”
I gave a grin and leaned back, leaves crunching as my body met the ground. “I can’t promise anything.”
“Great. And who’s the one that will have to carry you back to the car when you faint? You’re lookin’ at him.”
I patted his back as I leaned up again, excitement rising as I saw Travis’ truck coming down the street. “This is real, isn’t it? It’s not a dream?” I dreaded this moment. I was really under control for the past few days after I calmed down from when I heard they were coming. Now, it came back and I could feel myself bouncing up and down without my consent.
“Good lord, woman! Get a hold of yourself.” He smacked me right in the face and I sighed, needing that. Apparently, Tristan saw this as a one in a lifetime opportunity and smacked me again. I grabbed his hand and growled once more.
“That offer where you have no children is still going.” Tristan once again set a world record for shutting up. This kid was on fire.
My cousin Travis stepped out of the truck and I think Tristan got why he was so cool. He just had this air around him, it was awesome. He had dark brown slightly spiky hair, blue eyes covered up by sun glasses, and was 6’3”. He was dressed in a Rolling Stone’s T-shirt, a silver chain around his neck, a pair of very dark blue jeans, and some Converse All Stars. I always looked up to my cousin,  though I could never manage to be as cool as him.
“Hey guys, ready?” Good lord, did he have to ask? I don’t think Tristan got that running record from me, not being as fast as I was running for that truck. Being Travis’ cousin and all, I got to sit up front. I grabbed my American Idiot CD from my pocket and placed it in the player. I picked number three, Holiday, and cranked it up. Travis didn’t mind, seeing as listening to music was all he pretty much did other than playing Halo. On the outside, my cousin was slightly punk, he had his own style really. But on the inside, he was a bit nerdy. But that was alright with me.
“So, how long will this take?” I shrugged lightly at Travis’ question. But Tristan could read my mind.
“Knowing Ash, we’ll be there until Green Day leaves, which is about at nine.” I could nearly see Travis’ eyes bulge from his head.
“Nine?! Ash, I got a date!” Well forget about it, I thought to myself quietly but said nothing.
The drive there was torture and felt like a million hours when it was actually twenty minutes. Tristan did a good job of reminding me. I think when I met him I officially went insane. But, who knows? I could have been dropped on my head as a kid, or that’s Tristan’s theory.
You really have no idea how excited I was. It was kind of like when a wolf found an injured moose. Ok, not so violent and Discovery Channel-ish, but you get the idea. I have to admit, I’m a klutz. I walk into walls regularly and I’ve fractured the same foot three times. I’ve also broken my tail bone, my wrist, my other leg, and I’ve gotten a concussion. So, I guess you could predict what adding excitement does to me? Right. The moment my feet touch the ground I was in a dead run. I heard Travis calling me and just as I looked over, I collided with someone. As I got over the pain from my throbbing forehead, I noticed the person I had nearly run over. He was around my age, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was rubbing his head and was clenching his teeth.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”